


Harry Potter and the Slip of Fate

by NeriEsle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-31
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 12:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3650169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeriEsle/pseuds/NeriEsle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mr. Weasley did not win the Daily Prophet Prize Galleon Draw. The entire fate of the Wizarding World changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea in my head for a while, that if Mr. Weasley never won the Daily Prophet Prize Galleon Draw, then the Weasleys would not have their pictures in the papers. Sirius would not see Peter's picture, wouldn't know he was at Hogwarts, would not have escaped. Peter would not have been exposed for who he truly was. He would have not gone searching for Voldemort, who would continue to haunt the forests of Albania. What then?
> 
> More tags will be added as more chapters & characters are added.

"Did you hear that?"

Harry froze, and Ron and Hermione walked into him. They didn't seem to notice; they were too busy bickering furiously under their breaths, barely aware that they'd all come to a stop beneath Harry's invisibility cloak.

"… think you broke my foot, Ron!"

"… can't help it if the cloak isn't big enough this year…"

"… at least try to be graceful and take smaller steps…"

"… stop clinging on to my robes, it's not that dark out…"

"… I was not clinging!"

"Shut up!" Harry hissed, and his companions' mouths snapped shut. They both turned to glare at him, but Harry didn't care. The corridor was now completely silent. Harry stood absolutely still and strained his ears. The halls of Hogwarts in the middle of the night were usually silent and still, save for the occasional flickering flames of the torches on the walls. Harry frowned. He was sure he'd heard…

CRASH!

"Bloody hell!" Ron swore, jumping a foot. The three of them pivoted, with some difficulty, beneath the cloak, and turned to look back down the corridor, behind them.

"Come on," Harry muttered, and set off quickly, the other two struggling to keep up with him and stay hidden beneath the cloak.

"Do you think someone is hurt?" Hermione asked anxiously, nearly jogging to keep up.

Harry didn't answer as they turned a corner, Ron skidding so that a pair of disembodied, gangly legs appeared flailing out of nowhere. Luckily, there was no one around to notice.

There was another cringe-worthy crash, and a sound that made the hair on Harry's neck stand up… an animal howling…

"It's coming from Professor Lupin's office!" Harry shouted as they rounded a corner and ended up in front of a closed door. Inside, they could hear furniture breaking, glass shattering, and something big moving around…

Harry grabbed the handle and tugged. The door was locked tight.

"Harry, wait!" Hermione gasped.

A man's voice cried out from inside.

"Professor!" Ron shouted, banging on the door.

"Oh no… stand back! Alohomora!" Hermione cried, waving her wand at the handle.

The door sprang open, and Harry hurried inside. He skidded to a halt. 

Professor Lupin's office was completely trashed. Furniture had been overturned, table and chair legs ripped from their bases. Paper was scattered all over the room, bits of it burning from spilt and toppled candles. The curtains were torn and ripped from where they hung on the window. The grindylow cage was smashed and empty.

A thin, ragged, balding man stood in the middle of it all, his robes askew, clutching a wand and pointing it shakily at a huge, black mass in the shadowy corner of the room. It took a moment for Harry's eye to adjust, and then his stomach plummeted when the black mass came into focus.

It was a werewolf.

Ron yelped and whipped out his wand, thrusting to toward the werewolf. "Oh bloody…"

"No, don't Ron!" Hermione gasped, grabbing his arm. "That's Professor Lupin!"

" _That thing ate Professor_ …?!"

"No, that thing _is_ Professor Lupin!"

For a moment, everyone stood frozen. The thin, balding man was gasping for breath, his wand trembling violently in his hand as he pointed it at the dark, hulking creature in the corner. Ron's mouth was wide open in terror. Harry's heart was thudding in his ears.

Then the creature let out a terrible moan, and shifted slightly. For the briefest moment, its eyes met Harry's. 

The balding man made a sudden movement. "Avada Ked –"

"Relashio!" Hermione screamed.

The balding man stumbled back, yelping, clutching his wand-hand which had been hit by Hermione's spell. Harry saw one of his hands had a finger missing.

"He's trying to kill Lupin!" Hermione cried.

The balding man, who had caught himself from falling by grabbing onto the back of a chair, aimed his wand at Hermione and screeched, "Stupify!"

There was a terrible CRACK and Hermione was thrown backward, falling over an overturned bookcase and landing in a heap on the ground.

"Hermione!" Harry and Ron bellowed.

Harry spun to face the balding man, who had turned one last time to the werewolf in the corner. The man pointed his badly shaking wand at the werewolf, and Harry took up where Hermione left off and unthinkingly lunged at the man just as he cried, "Confringo!"

Harry crashed into the man, knocking them both off their feet; the spell missed the wolf and hit above it, and the room rocked with explosion. Blinded, deafened, and choking on smoke and dust, Harry felt himself land hard on the man's wand arm, felt them both crash into the wall, felt jars crash down on them, soaking them in escaped liquids.

Quite suddenly, the man's arm disappeared from beneath Harry, and as Harry scrambled to get his bearing, he realized the man was gone.

"Ron!" Harry shouted, hearing his own voice sound quite muffled behind a vicious ringing in his head. "Hermione!"

"Harry!" He heard Ron shout as if from far away.

Harry felt around him, squinting through the dust. There was a bright flickering against one side of the room… fire! "Where is he?" Harry asked, feeling around him, trying to discern through the dirty air. "He's gone!"

Harry found his own wand on the ground beside the wand the man seemed to have dropped. Grabbing both, Harry shakily got to his feet, his side stabbing with pain where he'd hit the corner of Lupin's trunk, and he stumbled over to Ron and Hermione, who, Harry saw with immense relief, was awake and alert, Ron kneeling next to her, his wand held tightly in his fist as if waiting to be attacked again.

"Harry!" she gasped. "Are you hurt?" A trickle of blood ran down from her hairline.

"I'm fine, what about _you_?"

Hermione, who was breathing hard, reached down the front of her robes and pulled out a long chain. "Oh no…" she muttered, staring at it in horror.

"He got away!" Ron exclaimed as the smoke and dust began to settle. "Harry… he got away!"

There was another whimpering moan, and the three of them turned to see the wolf barely stirring beneath a wardrobe that was now a raging inferno.

"Ron, get help!" Hermione gasped, grabbing the front of his robes. "Get Professor Dumbledore, hurry!"

"We _all_ have to get out of here… that's a werewolf!" Ron got to his feet, one hand gripping Hermione's arm as he tried to pull her up, too.

"We have to help him!" Hermione cried, and Harry ran forward toward the creature in the corner. It appeared to be dead. Professor Lupin or not, Harry didn't want to see it burn to death. Pocketing both wands, he reached out and grabbed the beast by the scruff of its neck and by one of its front legs, and dragged it with immense difficulty away from the blazing curtains above it.

"Are you mad!" Ron bellowed, but a moment later he was at Harry's side, pulling the limp werewolf away from the fire to the middle of the room.

Harry turned, sweating, gasping, coughing on the smoke that was quickly filling up the room. Hermione was leaning against the wall, watching them with fear.

Footsteps filled the corridor outside, and suddenly Filch, Snape, McGonagall, Hagrid, and Dumbledore were all standing in the hall, staring in shock into Professor Lupin's burning office while a dirty, sooty, sweaty Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared back, an unmoving werewolf at their feet.


	2. Chapter 2

That whole night was a blur.

Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hagrid rushed to the werewolf's side, while Filch was sent to fetch Madame Pomfrey, and Snape was told to get an assortment of potions from his office.

"He's not lookin' good, Professor," Hagrid muttered. "Look at 'is eyes!"

Burned, battered, and severely cursed, the werewolf needed to be stabilized, then transported to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and injuries. Snape arrived with a potion called Wolfsbane, which he forced down the wolf's throat non-too-gently. Madame Pomfrey rubbed a poultice on the burns covering the wolf, and Dumbledore was pointing his wand at the wolf's chest, murmuring some spell under his breath in one long, nonstop tone.

McGonagall stood up and turned on Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were cowering against the wall beside the door.

"What," she asked in a hiss, "has happened here?"

Hermione spoke up first, explaining how they could hear Hagrid's howls of grief from the Gryffindor Tower, and decided to risk going to see him to comfort him over Buckbeak's death.

Behind McGonagall, Hagrid gave a loud sniff.

Hermione explained how they'd heard a violent commotion coming from Professor Lupin's office, about how Hermione thought he must have been transforming into a werewolf, but then they'd heard a man's voice coming from inside the room.

They explained all about the man they saw, the balding, pallid, filthy little man with a finger missing, although only Harry seemed to have noticed this detail. They described how the man tried to kill Lupin, how the man attacked them, how Harry fought the man and the man suddenly disappeared from beneath Harry and vanished, although Ron and Hermione swore he did not walk past them to the door.

There wasn't time to wonder whether any of the teachers believed him. As soon as Harry finished explaining how the man seemed to shrink beneath Harry's grip, how he'd left his wand behind and vanished into thin air, Madame Pomfrey spoke up, "Albus, he's fading…"

Hermione gasped in horror, and Dumbledore instructed Harry, Ron, and Hermione to go straight back to Gryffindor Tower while the teachers transported the werewolf safely to St. Mungo's.

"I shall speak with you all tomorrow," Dumbledore said. "But now you are to go straight to your common room. Do not detour. Do not stop. And do not tell anyone the details of what has happened here tonight."

As Harry followed the other two past Snape, Harry distinctly heard him hiss under his breath, "Thirty points from Gryffindor. Out of bounds after hours."

Hoping whoever attacked Lupin decided to do the same with Snape, Harry followed Ron and Hermione out of the office. He picked up his discarded invisibility cloak on the ground, and hurried to catch up with the other two. None of them spoke until they were a floor up.

"How in the name of Merlin," Ron rounded on Hermione the minute the sounds from Lupin's office disappeared, "did you know Professor Lupin was a werewolf, and why didn't you tell us?"

"It wasn't any of our business," Hermione said evenly, walking with her hand over her chest and wincing every few steps.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked.

"Yes." Hermione clutched the chain around her neck. She had explained, rather apologetically and tearfully to Professor McGonagall, that when the man attacked them, the curse had hit the Time Turner around her neck and shattered it instantly, saving herself from the worse effects of the curse. "Just bruised, I think."

"And I can't believe," Ron continued to harp, "that you had a Time Turner this whole year and never said a thing!"

"McGonagall made me swear!" Hermione said stubbornly. "I needed it to get to all my classes this year. She had to get it special from the Ministry of Magic."

"Anything else you've been keeping from us this year?" Ron demanded.

Hermione ignored him, and they walked in tense silence until they got to the Fat Lady, who was in a deep sleep in her frame. She snorted in response to their password, and swung open.

The common room was dark and empty. The three of them went over to the fireplace. Hermione used her wand to light a fire in the grate, and the three of them collapsed into their favorite chairs beside the fire.

Again, Hermione winced, rubbing her chest.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Harry asked again. "You're bleeding."

Hermione pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and began dabbing at her forehead. "It's not bad," she said calmly. "Head cuts bleed more."

Harry sighed, rubbing his face with his hands, which he realized were shaking. "Do you think Professor Lupin will be all right?" he asked, and as he said it, his stomach dropped with dread.

"I hope so," Hermione said in a small voice.

"He'll be fine," Ron said in a voice that indicated he was trying to convince himself, too. "Werewolves are strong… aren't they?"

The ghost of a smile flickered on Hermione's face. "Yes. But that was a terrible attack! If Harry hadn't caught that man off balance… I don't think Lupin would have survived!"

"Who was that man?" Ron asked, sitting up straighter, his face serious. "I've never seen him before."

"Me neither," Hermione agreed.

"Do you think he tried to attack Lupin because he was a werewolf?" Ron suggested. "I mean… maybe he went to see Professor Lupin but saw the werewolf and panicked!"

"But why was the door locked from the inside?" Hermione wondered.

"And why did the man attack us?" Harry asked. "He didn't seem like he was trying to defend himself."

"No," Hermione shook her head. "No, he had Lupin cornered. He was going for the kill. And… well, that's just evil!"

"What d'you mean?" Ron asked, looking at Hermione as if she were crazy. "If you were confronted with a werewolf, wouldn't you try to kill it, if you could?"

"Lupin wasn't hurting anyone!"

"How do you know? How do you know he'd never hurt anyone before? Turning into a monster once a month…"

"Because Dumbledore and the other teachers obviously knew Professor Lupin was a werewolf!" Hermione said rather angrily. "And Dumbledore would have never let Lupin teach here if he thought Lupin was a danger to any of us!"

Ron didn't look convinced, but Harry agreed with Hermione. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and even Filch did not look surprised at all to see a werewolf in Lupin's office. They were more shocked at the state of the room, and at Lupin's injuries. Surely they would not run straight up to a creature like that if they thought they were in danger. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were even questioned in the same room as the werewolf, with McGonagall giving no indication that they ought to keep their distance.

"Do you think maybe it was a parent?" Ron offered after a few moments of silence. "Maybe someone else figured out what Lupin is, and told their parents? And their parents decided to take matters into their own hands!"

"But why would parents attack students?" Hermione pointed out. "We didn't do anything but stop them killing an innocent person, and they tried to curse us!"

Ron looked doubtful at the word "innocent", and Hermione noticed and frowned.

"Ron," she said impatiently, "do you think Professor Lupin has killed anyone?"

"Werewolves can't control themsel –"

"Ron, do you think Professor Lupin would kill anyone? Not a werewolf… our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! The one who has been giving Harry anti-dementor lessons all year! Would he ever try to hurt any of us?"

Ron looked grudging, but did not argue.

"So we think the man came there to murder Lupin?" Harry asked. "That he went into the office, locked the door behind him, and tried to kill him? Do you think he was some nutter who hates werewolves?"

"Could be," Hermione sighed.

"But where did he go?" Ron asked. "He didn't get by us! Hermione and I were right by the door, and we didn't see anyone go past."

"I didn't see him," Hermione agreed, "but then I really couldn't see anything through the dust and smoke."

"I'm almost positive no one walked past us through the door," Ron insisted. "Almost."

The three of them fell silent, thinking.

"He may have gotten past us," Hermione sounded reluctant. "I mean… it's the only explanation. And no," she snapped quickly when Ron looked to interject, "he did not Apparate, Ronald! Not inside school grounds!"

"I was going to say, maybe he hid in the room. It was a right mess… desks and chairs turned over, curtains on the floor…"

It was a weak argument, and Ron seemed to realize it.

"Well, if that's true, I'm sure he'll be found, what with Dumbledore there," Harry decided. "Dumbledore saw me under my invisibility cloak in our first year."

Hermione took her handkerchief away from her head, checking the wound. It had stopped bleeding, but her hair was matted slightly.

The three of them stayed up for a while talking a bit more, wondering whether the man was still in the castle now, how Lupin had managed to keep his condition a secret, and how he had known where Lupin's office was in the first place.

The fire was burning much lower, and after several minutes of ponderous silence, Ron's snore suddenly broke through the still darkness of the common room.

Harry chuckled, and he heard Hermione sigh from where she sat on the couch beside Ron. "I suppose the concentration has gotten to him."

"Well, it has been a terrible night," Hermione said, her voice sounding sad and quiet. "We never got a chance to properly talk to Hagrid like we wanted… I hope he's all right."

Harry felt his insides twist. "He seemed well enough in Lupin's office," he admitted. "Dumbledore was probably comforting him."

"We should see him tomorrow, first thing in the morning."

"Yeah," Harry said, nodding intently although it was now so dark since the fire died that he wasn't sure Hermione could see. "He'll probably be able to tell us if Lupin's…" And strangely enough, Harry felt his throat tighten, and it suddenly hit him how dire the situation was. Professor Lupin was the best teacher Harry had ever had… certainly one of his favorite people in the castle. For him to have suffered such injuries… and to have been carrying such a secret…

He didn't talk for a long moment, and quite soon he heard Hermione's breathing become steady and even; she'd fallen asleep, too.

Sighing, Harry sank down in his comfortable chair and closed his eyes. It barely made a difference; the common room was completely dark, and outside, clouds obscured any star or moonlight that might have come through the window.

Hoping fervently that only one death had occurred tonight, Harry's eyes sank closed into a dark, deep sleep.

Harry felt as if he'd only been asleep for a few hours when he sensed he was waking. His neck was stiff and his arm asleep. Opening a bleary eye, he saw the Common Room was barely lit; outside, the sky was brightening faintly, although the sun had not yet risen.

Looking over to the couch beside him, Harry suppressed a chuckled when he saw Ron and slumped over, sprawled out on his side, his head on the armrest, and Hermione had fallen in the same direction, her head cushioned on Ron's arm, her leg dangling over the couch's edge.

Carefully getting to his feet, Harry winced at the pains in his side, neck, and hip; he didn't realize how much he'd been battered last night during the attack, and his sleeping position certainly had not helped. Moving gingerly, he tread around his chair toward the window and gazed out over the predawn grounds to Hagrid's cabin.

To his surprise, Harry saw Hagrid massive form sitting on the front steps of his cabin. What was he doing up so early? Had something even worse happened…? As Harry's stomach lurched, he saw Hagrid lift something to his mouth, and lower it.

Had he been drinking all night?

There came a particularly loud snort from the couch, and Harry heard Ron rustle and sputter, "Hey, wha… oh…" Harry walked back to the couch and saw, from the weak light of the window, Ron staring in bewilderment at Hermione fast asleep on him. Ron looked up at Harry, and Harry could swear he could see Ron's blush through the dark. "Help me, will you?" he whispered.

Biting his lip to keep from laughing, Harry went to Ron's side, and helped him move out from beneath Hermione. When Ron got off the couch, though, Hermione stirred and woke.

"Huh? What? Who…?"

"Just moving up to bed," Ron said quickly.

"Oh… yes…" Hermione yawned and sat up, stretching and wincing.

"Hagrid's outside," Harry told them. "He's drinking already." Harry was suddenly wide awake. "I think… I think I'm going to go see him now." He went to the chair he'd fallen asleep on and picked up his invisibility cloak. "You can go on up to bed. I'll be back later."

"No," Hermione said firmly. "Dumbledore wants us to stay in the Common Room."

"He wanted us to go straight there last night."

"And he wouldn't want us wandering the halls before curfew is up!" she insisted. "They could be searching the halls for that man still! No, let's go up to bed and get some more sleep, and we'll visit Hagrid later."

Ron looked too sleepy to argue, so they made their way to their dormitories. Ron sank onto his bed, fully clothed, and began snoring again almost instantly. Harry lay in bed, tossing and turning, feeling like he'd never be able to sleep, but suddenly it was light out and the sounds of Dean and Seamus moving around woke Harry up.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione met in the common room, pale and bleary-eyed, while everyone chattered around them, excited for the weekend and the upcoming Hogsmeade trip. People were coming and going through the portrait hole. No one seemed to be talking about Professor Lupin, or gave any indication that someone had tried to commit murder the night before.

The three of them went to the Great Hall and ate quickly, then immediately set off for the front doors, down the steps into the warm morning, and across the lawn to Hagrid's cabin.

Hagrid was no longer on his front steps. Harry lifted his hand and knocked on the door. Fang barked from inside, but Harry had to knock several more times, exchanging worried looks with Ron and Hermione, before Hagrid emerged.

He looked terrible. His eyes were red and bleary, his face was swollen and soaked with tears, and he reeked of drink.

He took one look at them, and let out a wail.

Hermione rushed inside first and took Hagrid by the hand, leading him to his chair, and sat him down.

"How much have you had to drink, Hagrid?" she asked gently.

"Jus' some," he blubbered.

Harry looked around at five empty tankards, and exchanged nervous looks with Ron.

"I'll make some tea," Ron offered, going around and finding the cups and kettle while Hermione and Harry sat on either side of Hagrid, patting his hand.

"Did you sleep at all last night, Hagrid?" Harry asked.

"Couldn'," Hagrid moaned. "Kept seein' 'im… seein' when it happened… I can' get it outta my head! Poor Beaky… poor Beaky…" And he dissolved into sobs again.

Hermione also had tears in her eyes. "Did Dumbledore stay with you?"

Hagrid nodded, pulling out a tablecloth sized handkerchief and blowing his nose so loud Harry felt his glasses rattle on his face.

"He stayed for a while, then told me ter come to the Hospital Wing so Madame Pomfrey could give me summat to calm meself. An' that's when we heard…" He waved his hand as if to indicate they knew the rest of the story, and Harry ducked so he wasn't concussed by Hagrid's massive limb.

A few minutes passed where Hagrid cried steadily, Harry and Hermione patted his hands, and then Ron came over with four steaming mugs of tea, which he set in front of all of them.

Hagrid blew his nose one final time, making the tea ripple in their mugs. "I gotta get a hold of meself," he muttered, wiping his streaming eyes on the back of his hand. "Can' go to pieces like this…"

"It's perfectly normal to mourn," Hermione said fiercely. "You are allowed to be sad, Hagrid. Just… it might be best to mourn without the drink."

"Aye," Hagrid muttered.

Fang came out from under Hagrid's bed. He whimpered and sat at Hagrid's feet, his head hanging low.

"I'm jus' glad… Dumbledore 'n me gave 'im a proper burial," Hagrid said, sniffing again. "He's a bit a ways," Hagrid gestured with his massive hand, and again, Harry had to duck from being knocked out. "In a place where he can see the sunrise… he always loved the sunrise…" Hagrid's eyes leaked again. He reached down with a trembling hand and took a sip of the steaming tea. He sighed. "'s not fair," he muttered, shaking his head. "People jus' don't understand creatures. They think hippogriffs are dangerous without knowin' how to really handle 'em. But you three understand. Dumbledore understands. Tha's why he hired Professor Lupin. Dumbledore knows Professor Lupin's a decent man. Don't matter what you are, it's how you treat others."

Harry exchanged nervous looks with Ron and Hermione. "Hagrid… have you heard anything? Is Professor Lupin all right? He's not… he didn't…"

"Professor Snape gave 'im more wolfsbane, jus' in case. An' Madame Pomfrey made 'im stable enough, an' Dumbledore himself helped bring 'im to St. Mungo's. Great man, Dumbledore."

"And?" Hermione asked urgently. "Have you heard anything?"

Hagrid shook his head miserably. "Nah, nothin' yet. 'spect no news is good news, though. Poor Lupin. He's had a rough time of it. Can' hardly get a job without people suspectin' why he's sick every month. 'spect tha's been his whole life. Lupin told me a while back tha' Dumbledore helped 'im get special permission ter come ter Hogwarts as a boy. Imagine tryin' ter do yer work while turnin' into a werewolf every month. Imagine tryin' ter explain to yer boss why yer sick once a month. An' you know, the Ministry's jus' passed a bit o' legislation ter make it even more difficult for people like Lupin ter get a job. The Ministry doesn't like werewolves."

"The Ministry doesn't like werewolves?" Harry asked, frowning. "But… Lupin can't help what he is! That's not fair. Lupin's the best teacher we've ever had! Apart from you, of course," he added quickly, and Hagrid smiled at him, tremulously.

"Yer jus' like yer dad, Harry," Hagrid sighed. "Guess tha's why he an' Lupin were friends."

Harry blinked. "What?"

"James an' Remus were friends, o' course. Great friends, all through school an' even after."

Harry blinked, and looked at Ron and Hermione. They looked just as surprised as him. "Lupin never told me that," Harry said slowly.

"Tha's probably because it's a painful think ter discuss," Hagrid said absently, scratching Fang behind the ears while reaching past his cup of tea and grabbing a half-full tankard of more drink. "I can' imagine… losin' all yer friends in one week. An' here I am goin' to pieces because I lose me pet…" his voice quavered and he took a big swig of the tankard drink.

"So Lupin knew my dad well?" Harry pressed.

"Knew him well? Blimey, Harry, they were thick as thieves! Not unlike you three," Hagrid said. "James Potter an' Sirius Black an' Remus Lupin an' Peter Pettigrew. James an' Sirius were the ringleaders. Bigger troublemakers than your brothers," Hagrid nodded to Ron as he downed the rest of what was in the tankard in one large gulp.

Ron looked impressed.

"But then, o' course, after yer parents were killed, and Sirius killed Peter, Remus was left alone again. Makes me kinda ashamed ter have gone to pieces. Dunno if I could have survived all Lupin has."

"Wait… did you say my dad's friends killed each other?" Harry interrupted.

Hagrid gazed blearily at Harry. "You mean you never heard? Well, I don' think Remus would wanna talk about it… but yeah, Harry, Sirius killed Peter, an' now he's rottin' in Azkaban forever."

"Why?" Hermione asked, aghast.

"'Cause he was workin' for You Know Who, o' course!" Hagrid said, as if it was a common knowledge as Harry's scar. "Betrayed all his friends. Sent You Know Who ter your house. Tried ter finish you off when You Know Who couldn't, but I stopped him! Murdered Peter when Peter confronted 'im. An' was sent to Azkaban laughing. If there's anyone that belongs in that hell, it's Sirius Black."

At that pronouncement, Hagrid's eyes drooped, and he slumped back in his chair, mouth wide open and snoring. Fang howled at his feet.

Harry stared at Ron and Hermione, who stared back, stunned.

**Author's Note:**

> :)


End file.
